Stormy Traditions

After my folks left home along with the four dogs, I had to prepare myself for Traditions that was taking place at six in the morning while everyone is getting email notifications about their schedule traditions being moved to Saturday morning and afternoon instead of a Sunday due to Irma heading towards us. Of course with a nervous mind I had, I kept my family in contact to check up on how they are doing as they prepare for the hurricane, how our dog who had lung cancer doing, and other miscellaneous stuff that got me nervous.

By 4:30 in the morning, my phone’s national weather service alert woke my butt up while my roommates were still asleep. After I got dressed and had my cuban coffee and poptart, I sprint to the buses at chatham and ive seen a lot of people in business attire; which felt kind of weird for me since I like being dressed up but on the same token comfortable. What made it feel really weird was that its still nighttime.

While we were on our way to Disney University, which is were traditions is held, I was too busy admiring the facility that houses not only the trains but the monorails as well. I wish I could take pictures but sadly backstage magic rules applies to this as well except for Disney University.

As we got off, we headed to the cafeteria where we would be assigned to a room where we will me our Traditions leaders to give us the do’s and don’t. Of course, I was one of those people who watched youtube videos of traditions so I already know the whole run down; however, this was different that I remember seeing.

Keep in mind that Irma was gonna make landfall in 24-48 hours so instead of a walk through of Magic Kingdom or even have Mickey mouse give your name tags, we had a condensed Traditions where we watched a compilation of parks in the video where one of us would root or shout when we see our park (spoiler alert: I rooted for Epcot!). As for Mickey Mouse, he knocked on the door really loudly and proceed inside with a cart full of name tags. After that, he left in a hurry and I don’t blame him if we have a storm coming to destroy Florida in half. Overall, the coordinator and the cast members were very wonderful and it was cool that one of our Tradition leader was a character performer for Festival of Fantasy and the other was a culinary baker at my favorite bakery in Disney Springs or was it at that candy shop by where Disney Quest use to be. No matter, it went very well and it was nice to meet some people in my group especially Leila from the University of Hawai’i Hilo.

After traditions ended and board the bus back to our apartment with our name tags, I had to return to my apartment and quick change to my cozy clothes while my roommates were out getting more supplies for the storm.

I chatted with my folks and they were surprised on how much of a let down it was and they agreed that they did it so that they could have folks processed as quickly as possible. Then again, they had to laugh when I imitated Mickey Mouse on what he would of said if he was able to use his voice. (I already know I broke character integrity but I couldn’t help it while I am with my mom and dad).

After my conversation with mom and dad, I was so tempted to visit the parks just to give Irma a piece of my mind before what was going to be “The end of the World” but sadly the park closed early and that would mean I would need to log in to Netflix and possibly binge watch a TV show just to keep my mind occupied.